Environmental impact 'costs' PUMA almost 100 million Euro

PUMA and parent company PPR Group today (May 16) announced the results of the economic valuation of its environmental impact through its operations.

PUMA Chairman and CEO Jochen Zeitz

It puts the value of the impact of water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions alone at Euro 94.4 million.

The results revealed that the largest impacts come from the production of raw materials such as cotton and leather.

The company valued the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption involved in this part of the supply chain at Euro 41.4 million.

The valuation comes as part of the company's new method of analysing and auditing its environmental impact throughout its core business and supply chain operations.

The method of measuring the impact, 'Envrionment Profit and Loss Account' (E P&L), has been designed with the help of partners PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Trucost.

By giving the impacts a monetary value, the company believes that it can illustrate the cost to the environment in terms business can understand.

PUMA will use the results to minimise the environmental and business risks involved in their operations. They hope to set a new benchmark for corporate environmental reporting and encourage industry-wide engagement with the issues.

Chairman and CEO of PUMA, Jochen Zeitz, said that it was important for industry to be transparent on environmental reporting and the information can help companies to identify, understand and manage the risks resulting from resource scarcity and climate change.

He dismissed any suggestion of 'greenwash' saying it was a priority for PUMA to reduce emissions and environmental damage.

He said: "The cost of damage is much higher than the cost of avoidance and offsetting, so you need to reduce emissions to reduce damage."

He said that it was PUMA's mission to be not only the most desirable sportlifestyle brand in the world but also the most sustainable.

The results today are just the first in a three-stage plan for the E P&L.

In the next stage the economic values for the environmental impacts of acid rain, smog precursors, waste and impact on land-use will be assessed and reported.

After this, the company will focus on the benefits of the economic impacts such as the creating of jobs, business creation and growth. These benefits will then be offset against the environmental and social costs. The details of the methods used by PwC and Trucost are explained in depth on PUMA's website.Alison Brown